New radio access technologies (RATs), such as Long Term Evolution (LTE), offering faster data rates to support the capabilities of modern wireless communication devices continue to be developed and deployed at a rapid pace. These newer RATs are often co-deployed in areas of overlapping coverage with older legacy RATs. For example, Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks are being developed and deployed in regions of overlapping coverage with second generation (2G) networks, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) networks, and/or third generation (3G) networks, such as Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) networks. However, the coverage area of co-deployed RATs is often not co-extensive. Moreover, some RATs can be deployed in certain regions, but not in other regions.
Given the multitude of RATs in deployment and the general lack of universal deployment of various RATs, modern wireless communication devices are often configured for operation as multi-mode devices supporting operation on multiple RATs so as to allow continued network connectivity of the device in mobility scenarios in which the device can move between areas of coverage of various RATs. Further, as each RAT can generally use multiple bands, a multi-mode device can be configured for operation on each band that can be used by a supported RAT.
When a multi-mode wireless communication device is first powered on and/or is attempting to recover from an out of service (OOS) condition, the device is presently configured to scan every band used by each RAT supported by the device to attempt to detect an available wireless signal regardless of whether a RAT/band is deployed in a region in which the device is operating. Accordingly, the device can waste time and battery power performing a service scan for a band(s) and/or RAT(s) which are not even deployed in the device's region of operation.